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City Share: Public Workshop featuring Public Workshop founder: Alex Gilliam Friday, December 02, 2011

On December 7th, City Share will host Alex Gilliam, founder of Public Workshop, an organization that redefines the way youth and communities participate as citizens and leaders in the design of their neighborhoods and cities. Alex fundamentally believes that great design, empowerment, innovation, and having fun are not mutually exclusive. He creates inspiring curricula, trans-formative youth design leadership programs, innovative participatory community design tools, engaging events and thoughtful strategies that help people rethink possibility. He considers himself a cheerleader for possibility.

Alex’s recent work includes creating a green design leadership program in Chicago that trains young people to gather the environmental data and collect the stories that substantiate design changes in their neighborhoods; developing unique design-build place-making events to better engage youth and community in a master planning process in Austin, TX; designing a NEA funded youth community design leadership program for middle schools in the Bronx; leading a #teen- designheroes camp in rural Wisconsin for Chicago Public School students; and creating a full scale building system that allows young people to prototype their own playgrounds in under-used public spaces.

Chattanooga Stand is excited to host Alex virtually as he shares with us how his unique design methods can change communities and built environments.
We hope to see you on Wednesday, Dec. 7th at Greenspaces, 65 E. Main St.

Please RSVP to this event on Facebook or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

City Share is free and open to the public.
Lunch will be provided.

Posted by in Culture in Environment
SHIFT Chattanooga: Investing in Public Education Thursday, November 10, 2011

“My one wish for education is that we all work together for the children…that the whole community begins to invest in the school system,” said Hollie Steele a 4th grade teacher at Ooltewah Elementary School in a recent SHIFT Chattanooga Conversation.

“When you see communities where every kid is waiting till graduation to leave, I can tell you the future of that community,” said Pete Cooper, President of the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga. This is not our community, he goes on to say. We’ve begun to understand that our greatest strength is understanding our individual assets and asserting them in targeted and deliberate projects. We can see this tangibly in the structures that we celebrate Chattanooga with every day.

SHIFT CONVERSATIONS Rachel Gammon from ShiftCha on Vimeo.

When we discuss education, and the inequities between some schools over others, it is more imperative than ever for our community to explore our individual resources, and how we can engage ourselves in public education. “I think that my one wish for education would be that every child enters school being valued and every child has the ability to reach all of their dreams and that there’s not a disparity between the education someone is getting in one part of town and the education someone is getting in another part of town,” said Rachel Gammon, Executive Director of the Neighborhood House.

This can become difficult when we are transfixed with debates over education reform, like school vouchers or teacher evaluations. We can become distanced, feeling like we are unable to participate in substantial support for public education because we aren’t the ones responsible for decisions concerning public education. And this is not true. We can support our children through giving teachers the resources to provide quality education, such as donating time to read and mentor children or giving school supplies to classrooms or telling teachers how much we appreciate what they do for our community.

Regardless of whatever occurs with the Equal Opportunity Scholarship Act, currently being debated in Nashville, public education will still exist in Hamilton County, and it is up to us to ensure that every child in Hamilton County receives a strong education—because it will impact the future of our community.

As Pete Cooper, President of the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga said, “Every body feels like this is a community where they own it, they have a stake in it, and it’s their community. This isn’t some place where they’re living, waiting to go somewhere else.” And that’s what makes Chattanooga special.

Posted by in Environment
Public Meeting: Gateway Plan for the North Shore Parks District Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Photochrom print of Moccasin Bend from Lookout Mountain, Tennessee by the Detroit Photographic Co. in 1902.

On Monday, November 14, 2011, the community is invited to attend an Open House and Financial Presentation from architecture firm Jones & Jones in the Tennessee Room at the University Center on the UTC campus. The public meeting will focus on final concept plans for the Moccasin Bend Gateway and Stringer’s Ridge, which will be available for public viewing throughout the day, followed by a formal presentation at 5:30pm. The event is hosted by the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency.

The area being studied includes the Manufacturer’s Road, Hamm Road, and Cherokee Boulevard corridors.

“The North Shore Gateway plan will provide fundamental walking and bicycle connections throughout the area, connecting downtown with the national park, Stringer’s Ridge Park, and serve as a new link to Red Bank. Extending transportation options, and especially active and environmentally friendly options, is important to provide accessibility to these resources of our community,” says Philip Pugliese, Bicycle Coordinator at Outdoor Chattanooga.

From 10:00am – 5:00pm, maps, drawings, and a fly-through video will be on exhibit. The Regional Planning Agency staff and members of the design team will also be available throughout the Open House hours to answer questions.

At 5:30pm the formal program will begin with a short video by Grant Jones, Principal Emeritus with Jones & Jones, followed by a presentation of the final “Gateway” concepts, and an opportunity for the audience to ask questions.

To ensure adequate seating, please RSVP for the Public Presentation to the Regional Planning Agency at 423-643-5901 or at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Light refreshments will be served.

Free parking will be available in the 5th Street garage after 5:00pm. Prior to 5:00pm there will be a charge for visitor parking.

For additional information, please contact:
Karen Hundt, Regional Planning Agency
423-643-5913
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Posted by in Economy in Culture in Environment
CreateHere: A Dynamic Place to Work—Community Yoga Monday, November 07, 2011

CreateHere’s space offers us the flexibility to host very different types of functions, from CityShare to Chattanooga Shakespeare auditions.

CreateHere as a good place for community forums.

CreateHere as a good place for reading.

Every Tuesday from 5-6pm, CreateHere is also a good place for community yoga, taught by Beth Moore Keene. It costs $5, and is open to the public.

Posted by in Culture in Environment
Citizen Forester Finishes Fall Workshops Sunday, November 06, 2011

Citizen Forester finished out the fall workshops with a bang this past Saturday at The Barn Nursery. It was the biggest workshop of the season with 22 participants! Instructor and TakeRoot Coordinator Michael Wurzel reflects on the September and October workshops:

“There is a lot of passion and excitement about trees in this city. As an instructor for the Citizen Forester workshops, it was amazing to see people seriously engaged about their desire to learn how to properly plant and take care of their trees and learn how those simple actions can improve homes, neighborhoods, and communities. Citizen Forester workshops marry two great assets of our city, its engaged citizenry and its thriving tree canopy. I look forward to teaching workshops again in the spring.” - Michael Wurzel

Photos: Citizen Foresters plant a tree at The Barn Nursery, the last workshop for the Fall.

Posted by in Environment